Social promotion
Encyclopedia
Social promotion is the practice of promoting a student
(usually a general education student, rather than a special education
student) to the next grade
despite their low achievement in order to keep them with social peers. It is sometimes referred to as promotion based on seat time, or the amount of time the child spent sitting in school, regardless of whether the child learned the necessary material.
Advocates of social promotion argue that promotion is done so as not to harm the students' self-esteem
, to keep students together by age (together with their age cohort
), to facilitate student involvement in sports teams, and to allow a student who is strong in one area, but weak in another, to advance further in the strong area.
In Canada
and the United States
, social promotion is normally limited to Kindergarten through the end of eighth grade, because comprehensive high schools (grades nine through twelve) are more flexible about determining which level of students take which classes due to the graduation requirements, which makes the concept of social promotion much less meaningful.
The opposite, to "hold back" a student with poor academic achievement, is called grade retention
. Other options include after-school tutoring or summer school
.
is even worse. They argue that retention is not a cost-effective response to poor performance when compared to cheaper or more effective interventions, such as additional tutoring and summer school. They point to a wide range of research findings that show no advantage to, or even harm from, retention, and the tendency for gains from retention to wash out.
Harm from retention cited by these critics include:
Critics of retention also note that retention has hard financial costs for school systems: requiring a student to repeat a grade is essentially to add one student for a year to the school system, assuming that the student does not drop out.
Opponents of social promotion argue that it has the following negative impacts:
Some hold that most students at the elementary school level don't take their education seriously and therefore retention is most likely not to be effective. Since most middle school students value their education more , retention should be used if they are judged not to have adequate skills before entering high school.
, no statistics are kept on retention. For boys and minorities, retention is even more common. Nationally, by the time students reach high school, the retention rate for boys is about ten percentage points higher than for girls. In the early grades, retention rates are similar among white Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans. By high school, the rate is about 15 percentage points higher for African Americans and Hispanics than for whites.
In 1999, educational researcher Robert Hauser said of the New York City school district: "In its plan to end social promotion the administration appears to have [included] ... an enforcement provision -- flunking kids by the carload lot -- about which the great mass of evidence is strongly negative. And this policy will hurt poor and minority children most of all."
In a study of 99,000 Florida students, Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/edfp.2007.2.4.319 found that "retained students slightly outperformed socially promoted students in reading in the first year after retention, and these gains increased substantially in the second year. Results were robust across two distinct IV comparisons: an across-year approach comparing students who were essentially separated by the year in which they happened to have been born, and a regression discontinuity design." ["Revisiting Grade Retention: An evaluation of Florida's test-based Promotion Policy in Education and Finance Policy, MIT Press, 2006
]
Social promotion began to spread in the 1930s along with concerns about the psychosocial effects of retention. This trend reversed in the 1980s, as concern about slipping academic standards rose.
The practice of grade retention in the U.S. has been climbing steadily since the 1980s, although local educational agencies may or may not follow this trend. For example, in 1982, New York City
schools stopped social promotions. Within a few years, the problems caused by the change in policy lead the city to start social promotion again. In 1999, the city once again eliminated social promotion; it reinstated it after the number of repeaters had mounted to 100,000 by 2004, driving up costs and leading to cutbacks in numerous programs, including those for helping underachievers.
, where students repeat a grade when they are judged to be a low performer. The aim of retention is to help the student learn and sharpen skills such as organization, management, study skills
, literacy and academic which are very important before entering the next grade, college
and the labor force
.
In the US simple social promotion was not held to be an adequate alternative to grade retention
. Current theories among academic scholars prefer to address underperformance problems with remedial help. Students with singular needs or disabilities require special teaching approaches, equipment, or care within or outside a regular classroom. Since students with intellectual disabilities are handled separately, schools may treat two students with identical achievements differently, if one of the students is low-performing, but typically developing, and the other student is low-performing due to a disability.
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
(usually a general education student, rather than a special education
Special education
Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...
student) to the next grade
Grade level
Often, people are educated through a series of educational stages, such as primary school and university. They vary around the world, and not every person will attend the same stages...
despite their low achievement in order to keep them with social peers. It is sometimes referred to as promotion based on seat time, or the amount of time the child spent sitting in school, regardless of whether the child learned the necessary material.
Advocates of social promotion argue that promotion is done so as not to harm the students' self-esteem
Self-esteem
Self-esteem is a term in psychology to reflect a person's overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs and emotions such as triumph, despair, pride and shame: some would distinguish how 'the self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, the...
, to keep students together by age (together with their age cohort
Cohort (statistics)
In statistics and demography, a cohort is a group of subjects who have shared a particular time together during a particular time span . Cohorts may be tracked over extended periods in a cohort study. The cohort can be modified by censoring, i.e...
), to facilitate student involvement in sports teams, and to allow a student who is strong in one area, but weak in another, to advance further in the strong area.
In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, social promotion is normally limited to Kindergarten through the end of eighth grade, because comprehensive high schools (grades nine through twelve) are more flexible about determining which level of students take which classes due to the graduation requirements, which makes the concept of social promotion much less meaningful.
The opposite, to "hold back" a student with poor academic achievement, is called grade retention
Grade retention
Grade retention or grade repetition is the process of having a student repeat an educational course, usually one previously failed. Students who repeat a course are referred as "repeaters"...
. Other options include after-school tutoring or summer school
Summer school
Summer school is a school, or a program generally sponsored by a school or a school district, that teaches students during the summer vacation....
.
Arguments in favor
Supporters of social promotion policies do not defend social promotion so much as say that retentionGrade retention
Grade retention or grade repetition is the process of having a student repeat an educational course, usually one previously failed. Students who repeat a course are referred as "repeaters"...
is even worse. They argue that retention is not a cost-effective response to poor performance when compared to cheaper or more effective interventions, such as additional tutoring and summer school. They point to a wide range of research findings that show no advantage to, or even harm from, retention, and the tendency for gains from retention to wash out.
Harm from retention cited by these critics include:
- Increased drop-out rates of retained students over time
- No evidence of long-term academic benefit for retained students
- Increased rates of dangerous behaviors such as drinking, drug-use, crime, teenage pregnancy, and depression among retained students as compared with similarly performing promoted students.
- Feeling left out with kids from different age groups, which means that being too old may lead to bullying, having fewer friends, and being ridiculed.
Critics of retention also note that retention has hard financial costs for school systems: requiring a student to repeat a grade is essentially to add one student for a year to the school system, assuming that the student does not drop out.
Arguments against
Opponents of social promotion argue that it cheats children of education. When socially promoted children reach higher levels of education, they may be unprepared, may fail courses, and may not make normal progress towards graduation.Opponents of social promotion argue that it has the following negative impacts:
- Students promoted to a class for which they are known to be unable to do the work are positioned for further failure.
- Students can have many failures during the subsequent years, which is frustrating for them and may increase the risk of dropping out.
- Their frustration can lead to classroom disruptions, which can diminish the achievement of others.
- It sends the message to all students that they can get by without working hard.
- It forces the next teacher to deal with under-prepared students while trying to teach the prepared
- It gives parents and students a false sense of their children's progress.
Some hold that most students at the elementary school level don't take their education seriously and therefore retention is most likely not to be effective. Since most middle school students value their education more , retention should be used if they are judged not to have adequate skills before entering high school.
Statistics
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, no statistics are kept on retention. For boys and minorities, retention is even more common. Nationally, by the time students reach high school, the retention rate for boys is about ten percentage points higher than for girls. In the early grades, retention rates are similar among white Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans. By high school, the rate is about 15 percentage points higher for African Americans and Hispanics than for whites.
In 1999, educational researcher Robert Hauser said of the New York City school district: "In its plan to end social promotion the administration appears to have [included] ... an enforcement provision -- flunking kids by the carload lot -- about which the great mass of evidence is strongly negative. And this policy will hurt poor and minority children most of all."
In a study of 99,000 Florida students, Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/edfp.2007.2.4.319 found that "retained students slightly outperformed socially promoted students in reading in the first year after retention, and these gains increased substantially in the second year. Results were robust across two distinct IV comparisons: an across-year approach comparing students who were essentially separated by the year in which they happened to have been born, and a regression discontinuity design." ["Revisiting Grade Retention: An evaluation of Florida's test-based Promotion Policy in Education and Finance Policy, MIT Press, 2006
]
History
With the proliferation of graded schools in the middle of the 19th century, retention became a common practice. In fact, a century ago, approximately half of all American students were retained at least once before the age of 13.Social promotion began to spread in the 1930s along with concerns about the psychosocial effects of retention. This trend reversed in the 1980s, as concern about slipping academic standards rose.
The practice of grade retention in the U.S. has been climbing steadily since the 1980s, although local educational agencies may or may not follow this trend. For example, in 1982, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
schools stopped social promotions. Within a few years, the problems caused by the change in policy lead the city to start social promotion again. In 1999, the city once again eliminated social promotion; it reinstated it after the number of repeaters had mounted to 100,000 by 2004, driving up costs and leading to cutbacks in numerous programs, including those for helping underachievers.
Alternatives
One alternative to social promotion is a policy of grade retentionGrade retention
Grade retention or grade repetition is the process of having a student repeat an educational course, usually one previously failed. Students who repeat a course are referred as "repeaters"...
, where students repeat a grade when they are judged to be a low performer. The aim of retention is to help the student learn and sharpen skills such as organization, management, study skills
Study Skills
Study skills or study strategies are approaches applied to learning. They are generally critical to success in school, are considered essential for acquiring good grades, and are useful for learning throughout one's life....
, literacy and academic which are very important before entering the next grade, college
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
and the labor force
Labor force
In economics, a labor force or labour force is a region's combined civilian workforce, including both the employed and unemployed.Normally, the labor force of a country consists of everyone of working age In economics, a labor force or labour force is a region's combined civilian workforce,...
.
In the US simple social promotion was not held to be an adequate alternative to grade retention
Grade retention
Grade retention or grade repetition is the process of having a student repeat an educational course, usually one previously failed. Students who repeat a course are referred as "repeaters"...
. Current theories among academic scholars prefer to address underperformance problems with remedial help. Students with singular needs or disabilities require special teaching approaches, equipment, or care within or outside a regular classroom. Since students with intellectual disabilities are handled separately, schools may treat two students with identical achievements differently, if one of the students is low-performing, but typically developing, and the other student is low-performing due to a disability.
Further reading
- "Schools Repeat Social Promotion Problems", Sheryl McCarthy, Newsday, March 28, 2002.
- "What If We Ended Social Promotion?", Education Week, April 7, 1999, pp 64-66.
- Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management, Jeffrey PfefferJeffrey PfefferJeffrey Pfeffer, Ph.D., is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and is considered one of today's most influential management thinkers...
and Robert I. SuttonRobert I. SuttonRobert I. Sutton is Professor of Management science at the Stanford Engineering School and researcher in the field of Evidence-based management....
, 2006
External links
- Taking Responsibility for Ending Social Promotion: A Guide for Educators and State and Local Leaders, U.S. Department of Education, May 1999
- Retention and Social Promotion: Research and Implications for Policy. ERIC Digest Number 161, December 2000.
- Beyond Social Promotion and Retention—Five Strategies to Help Students Succeed, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 2001
- Position Statement on Student Grade Retention and Social Promotion, National Association of School Psychologists, April 12, 2003
- Wrightslaw articles on retention and social promotion
- Social Promotion vs. Mastery Learning: What to do with Students Who Don't Meet Standards